A: We made the final mix at the Record Plant studio. But it's mostly
because our album evokes the european culture, it is spiritually
european and it's a new conscience that we discovered during our trip on
the american continent in 75.
Everybody asked us how was life in
Germany, in Paris. People wanted to know where was our culture at that
point. People used to say that we were not rock n' roll, then thanks to
these trans-atlantic trips we discovered our cultural identity as
Europeans.

Q: In your show, you played two new songs refering to Europe : "Europe
Endless" and "TEE". Do you really believe in this european
consciousness ? Aren't you german anymore ?

A: It's not a nationalist feeling... The culture of the Rhine area is
our cultural background. What amazed us in the States, is that everyone
shows his own background much more than in Europe, although we have
museums and a very rich history. In the States however, there are only
"blocks", then people are asked to show this background on a
psychological and individual level...

A: (Florian) : When you are in an american studio, there's a distance
which allows you to see all this very clearly.

A: (Ralf) : In Germany, the young guys play american music, and we, in
Hollywood, play germanic music...

A: (Florian) : When I heard american musicians, of course it had nothing
to do with those young Germans who think they play "american"...

Q: Don't you think you're in the same position as Fritz Lang making
some american product (thriller) in Hollywood, but movies full of an
expressionist german culture ?

A: Yes, in a sense. Distance allows to see more clearly. To get
conscious of things, you must go out and watch. For us, the problem was
to go outside ourselves, of our existence limited by the same tours in
Germany, to look at our own culture in a distance.

Q: Could you explain your present success by this consciousness ?

A: I don't have any rational explanation, so much more so as people, in
France for instance, buy our records but don't really come to our
concerts.

Q: So, how do you explain this difference between the albums and the
gigs ?

A: The album always starts from a concept : "Radioactivity" came from
an idea that fascinated us for a long time, the concept of the radio and
all the phenomenon of the airwaves, the transmission of any radio-active
material.
We are thrilled by that stuff, end the idea of that album was
in our heads for at least three years. During our first tour in the
U.S., we have visited all the independant radios, for we used to see
ourselves as a radio station... but it's impossible to start something
like that in Germany, because of the state monopole. So, the only way to
do it is through records, and to use concerts to amplify even more the
"media record".
But few people still come to our shows, because it's
difficult for them to imagine that it's a band who plays that music and
that it can be reproduced live. They thought it was only studio work...
like Sgt Pepper, for instance, which the Beatles couldn't play live
because they knew three chords only.

Q: Some nasty people compared the success of "Radioactivity" to the
success of "Pop Corn"...

A: "Pop Corn" was only a "gimmick composition". There was nobody behind
it, whereas for "Radioactivity", it's our duty (and perhaps even yours)
to show what's behind it.
It was indispensable for us to produce that
album and to go beyond it. It's a stage and the witness of a moment.

Q: That record obviously fascinated such people as Bowie or Iggy Pop...

A: It's normal. It's a little bit like a snapshot, a diaphragm that
puts light exactly on a mental and musical aspect that nobody had
considered before.
Here, people have always taken pictures of English
and Americans, and we had to turn the camera and to take a picture of
ourselves, to expose ourselves to the media, because the post-war german
generation remained in the shadow : those who are older than us had
Elvis or the Beatles for idols... those are not bad options, but if we
completely forget our identity, it becomes quickly "empty" and not
consistent. There's a whole generation in Germany, between 30 and 50,
who has lost its own identity, and who even never had any.

Q: So you pretend being able to help the german youth to find their
own identity ?

A: The living culture of Central Europe has been cut in the 30s, and
all the intellectuals went to the U.S. or to France, or they have been
eliminated. We take back that culture of the 30s at the point where it
was left, and this on a spiritual level...

A: (Florian) : Electro-acoustic instruments have been developped in
Europe, in Germany, in France...

Q: So you make a connection between a culture of the past, but using
modern tools, and using the mass media in the american way...

A: The tape recorder has been invented in Germany! We also use
microphones in Germany. But of course, there's no question of a national
cult...

Q: For some people, you're doing a primary music, although your musical
justifications are highly intellectual.

A: It is true that it's very hard to compose something as simple as
"Autobahn", hard to draw the shortest line between two points...

A: (Florian) : It's like in science : it can seem very simple, atoms and
radioactivity... once it's been discovered !

Q: Is it because you need to feel close to the audience that you have
chosen the world of rock music and that you mention the Beach Boys as
your reference ?

A: Yes, in their songs they managed to concentrate a maximum of
fundamental ideas. In 100 years from now, when people will want to know
what California was like in the 60s, they only had to listen a single by
the Beach Boys.

Q: So, in the same way, when people will want to know about Europe in
1976, they'll listen to Kraftwerk ?

A: Yes, I hope so. If our communication system works really fine...

Q: So, in which direction are you working ? Towards something even more
"robotic" ?

A: The "movie" side of our work will be extended. When you work with
tapes, it spins, it becomes a film-media, beyond music. I don't mean we
are going to produce films - we already shot a very short one - but we
will rather, during the shows, include electronic ballets in which we
will be acting ourselves, making movements with our bodies, movements
that correspond to certain vibrations... some new concepts on which we
are working for our next tour.

A: (Ralf) : we have machines which allow us to make our ideas come true,
and while they are doing it, we can go even further, to a next step.

A: (Florian) : The other german bands, with the help of their machines,
are making a trip backwards, while we are rather making a trip forward.

Q: As for the other german "spacey" bands, it looks like they refuse to
see the machines for what they are, and that they propose meditation
instead. For you, machines exhibit themselves and become a form of
provocation, of agression...

A: It's agression and agressive beauty.

A: (Florian) : We also have melodies, we try to create a contrast between
those two elements.

A: (Ralf) : We compose our melodies as we hum in the studio, and the
rythm comes from the sounds of the machines.

Q: As for what people see on stage, is it a conscious reference to the
great german expressionist movies like "the cabinet of doctor Caligari" ?

A: Yes, indeed, we worked on that...

A: (Florian) : sometimes I'm scared by all that stuff on stage, it's so
hard. There's too much noise, but it works like a sado-masochist
fascination.

Q: When we went together to the exhibition of "Machines Celibataires",
you looked fascinated by the most evil machines...

A: We are also single (celibataires) ourselves (laughs) !

Q: Tell me about your meeting with Bowie and your projects...

A: We should have worked together already, but the success of the last
album forced us to tour until october, and our projects were postponed.
But with Bowie, what makes us closed from each other, it's mostly
similar considerations about psychology.
It's the same with Iggy. By the
way, we have dedicated a song of our new album to them (TEE)... They're
just like us, big fans of trains. No other band could evoke the world of
trains better than us, I think.
The metallic music, metal on metal... We
are going to record with Bowie. He will come to Dusseldorf pretty soon
for that. We still don't know what we're gonna do together, it's mostly an
encounter...

A: (Florian) : We have always been interested by what Bowie is doing,
especially in his last albums. He started from hard rock, and he's now
on the step of electro-acoustic music, while we went the opposite way,
from electronic music to rock music... So I think that what will happen
will be thrilling.

A: (Ralf) : I think it's the same kind of research for a synthetic man.
We were fascinated by the creation of that concept and we tried to
develop it by ourselves, without the help of a producer. Anyone who is
working in show bizness wait for someone else to create their specific
image. We said to ourselves : we don't want to wait, we will discover
ourselves alone.

Q: But do you think people are doing the equivalent of your work in
movies, painting, etc.

A: Emil, who works with us, is a student of Joseph Beuys, the most
famous german master of visual art, one of the creators of the Fluxus
group, interested in actions and happenings.
Emil works on the visual
side of our shows and writes some of the lyrics. In Germany, for about
5 years, there's a great movement of parallel movie makers from which
we feel quite close.
For instance, Fassbinder used our music for his
next movie "La Roulette Chinoise", and we will work with him again in
the future. All this paranoid consciousness is specific to german
movies. Every young german movie maker is scared by the camera...

Q: Just like in expressionist movies in which there was always a poetic
vision of reality...

A: Yes, exactly.

Q: What is the subject of "Europe Endless", this new composition that
you sing on stage ?

A: We travelled all over Europe, and especially after a tour in the
States, we realized that Europe is mostly parcs and old
hotels... "promenades and avenues"... "real life"... real life, but in
a world of postcards. Europe, when back from the States, it's only a
succession of postcards...

Q: Did you go to some concerts during your trip in the States ? Did you
see the Beach Boys live ?

A: Yes, we have seen them in a big stadium. It was gorgeous, like a
rebirth. There's a wonderful and very poignant song in their last album,
"Once in my life". I'd like to dare to say once in my life what Brian
Wilson says in that song...

Q: Where does your passion for the Beach Boys come from ?

A: The intelligence of their thoughts regarding american reality put
onto records.

A: (Florian) : When we reached California and Hollywood, we were able to
say : yes, it's exactly like that, like in the songs of the Beach Boys.

Q: And would you like people to say the same thing about your music
and Europe, and especially Germany ?

A: That's exactly what Bowie told us : when he came to see us in
Dusseldorf in his Mercedes, he took the highway while listening to
"Autobahn" on the car stereo. He said : it's exactly like that,
everything is in your tune.

Q: And with Iggy Pop ?

A: We met him in a lift, and it's been a true contact right away. I
always liked what the Stooges were doing : they "dared". With
electronics, you can hide yourself behind the machines, or you can
expose yourself.
There are various ways of exhibing oneself. We are
perhaps also interested in Iggy because of the Fluxus happenings in
which I was involved when I was student... "action, action baby !" With
electronic instruments, you can be alone, all alone on stage, like Iggy
: you don't even have a guitar to hide yourself.
To some physical
discoveries of rock music can correspond some fundamental and terrible
psychological discoveries, like reading a book that changes the vision
of the world you had before. After that, you never walk quite the same
way...

Q: Why are you using this strange system in place of drums ?

A: Iggy Pop, for instance, was a drummer and he stopped to go even
further. He became a singer. With drums, the drummer hides himself
behind an "action".
Our purpose was to open, to go one step beyond and
to produce music for loud speakers. We couldn't achieve this with a
traditional drummer : with our two percussionists, we worked for months
to develop that system, and it changed our lives.

Q: What do these two drummers represent compared to the duet of the
two of you ?

A: They are part of Kraftwerk. Of course, with Florian we play music
for 10 years, while they work on our side for 3 years only and they
penetrate only slowly the Kraftwerk universe.
We couldn't play our
music with anybody. It's important to be able to understand each other,
because electronic humour is not obvious for everybody.

Q: Please give an example of this electronic humour...

A: Well, you can listen to "Autobahn" and then drive on the highway.
Then you'll realize that your car is a musical instrument. So many
things can be funny... It's a real philosophy of life that comes from
electronics.

Q: Same thing about your taste for costumes and grey shoes, perhaps ?

A: Yes, everything comes from a consciousness in front of tape
machines, cameras, all those machines produced by electronics.

Q: What is exactly the role of Emil ?

A: He is our medium. He writes lyrics, takes care of the lights.

A (Florian) : when I met Emil, and when he showed his comics to me, I
thought they looked like our music.

Q: Could you split up some day ?

A: We already tried, but it didn't work. Our understanding is too
stimilating : we discovered lots of things bacause we were together,
and loneliness could never have taken us where we are now. It's a
necessary duality... kling - klang.

Q: And the new album ?

A: It will be released in january. We still have a lot of work to do,
because since we had the chance to play the new songs live, we know what
doesn't work.
On one side, our music is very simple, built around a
story board, and at the same time very experimental. The new songs are
always born from the old ones, like the new branch growing on top of
the old one. In the name of the album, there will be of course the word
"Europe", and the sleeve will be made from a set of mirrors reflecting
our pictures.
By the way, there is a song called "The Hall Of Mirrors"
in the album : the story of what we did since the beginning, our
psychological trip, in some ways the other side of the background.